Jackson Free Press

Jim Barksdale, former president and CEO of Netscape, has officially offered Jackson Public Schools financial assistance to hire and retain the best superintendent that money can buy. Barksdale made his offer at a school board meeting last night.

Barksdale said he has no desire to participate in selecting the new superintendent for Jackson Public Schools, but he doesn't want board members to pass over a good candidate because they think they cannot afford him or her. "Certainly if you can attract and retain the best assistance in the United States on whatever JPS has budgeted, that's what you should spend," he said. "… I'm just making the offer if it would help."

Board members thanked Barksdale for his offer, but said it's a bit too early in the search process to discuss salaries since they do not yet know whether JPS' salary offer will be a barrier to hiring. Barksdale said he is trying to get a little bit ahead of the game.

"I have noticed in my career of hiring a lot of executives, sometimes to get the best person you've got to pay a little bit more, because they have other people who want them, and it gets to be a competitive bidding process. The price of eggs is whatever people will pay for it in an open market."

Barksdale compared his offer to colleges that supplement coaches' salaries with alumni contributions. "I don't know why we shouldn't do the same for the superintendent of our public schools," he said.

Board Member Otha Burton said the board's focus right now is designing a good search process to find a good candidate, although he appreciates knowing Barksdale's offer is there if they need more money to put on the table. "Sometimes best isn't always synonymous with money," Burton said. "… We want to approach it from that perspective."

Barksdale told the Jackson Free Press that he decided to offer financial help for JPS' superintendent search after hearing Geoffrey Canada, an education advocate in Harlem, N.Y., who was featured in "Waiting for Superman," talk about how important good superintendents and principals are to student success.

"I'd hate for us to not set our sights high enough," Barksdale said.

The board also voted to hire Ray and Associates, a consulting firm, to help with the search. Board Member Ivory Phillips abstained from voting, saying he thought the district could do the search without hiring an outside consultant.

The board has also formed a Community Advisory Committee to get input from stakeholders in the district.

Interim Superintendent Jayne Sargent's contract expires in July. The board hired her last June after voting not to renew then-Superintendent Lonnie Edwards' contract. Sargent previously served as superintendent of JPS from 1997 until she retired in 2002.

Previous Comments

ID

165420

Comment

Mr. Burton, The old adage says "You get what you pay for". The goal is to ATTRACT a pool of highly qualified, successful candidates, not warmed-over educational bureaucrats who are looking for their last job to pad their retirement which is what we got in the last hire. In fact, if you go back and examine the final pool of candidates from that last hiring search, there were NO names in there that said I am a top notch, well qualified game changer.... I'm reading between the lines and rather than sit down and discuss Barksdale's offer, some on the Board just chose to resent the offer or the person for whatever reason.

Author

833WMaple

Date

2011-11-17T09:30:54-06:00